Sneaky on Both Sides
by suzie2b
Summary: After the Germans invade the encampment where the Rat Patrol had escorted a convoy to, it's up to a few to battle the many.
**Disclaimer:** _ **The Rat Patrol**_ **is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.**

 **Sneaky on Both Sides**

 **By Suzie2b**

 **The convoy had reached the encampment in less than two days with only one run-in with a German scout column. Charley delivered the package to the commanding officer and walked out of the tent to find Tully leaning on a tree waiting for her.**

 **He put his arms around her and said, "We've got a tent assignment for the night."**

 **Charley smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. "We as in 'us' or we as in 'five to a tent'?"**

 **Tully chuckled. "Two tents and I paid Hitch off. He's going to sleep elsewhere."**

" **Ah … he's already discovered there are nurses' here."**

" **If he hasn't, I'm sure he will soon enough."**

 **############################**

 **Sleeping in cots just wasn't what Charley and Tully had in mind for that night. It had been nearly a month since they'd been together for anything other than an occasional meal. Tully went to the supply tent and returned with as many blankets as he could carry. The supply sergeant thought he was crazy, but they made a nice comfy bed on the ground.**

 **Around two in the morning Tully awoke to the sound of muffled voices outside. He figured it was the sentries and closed his eyes. Then, as he heard the voices again, he realized whoever it was, they weren't speaking English.**

 **Tully gently moved Charley's head and arm off his chest. As he got up, he grabbed his boxers to put on. He opened the tent flap just enough to peek out and saw German soldiers skulking about. He quickly went back to Charley and put his hand over her mouth. When her eyes opened, he put a finger to his lips. When she nodded her understanding, Tully moved his hand and whispered, "Get dressed. There's Germans in camp and I don't think they're here for a friendly visit."**

 **Charley quickly grabbed her clothes as she stood up. Tully managed to pull on pants, socks, and boots before he heard a sound outside the tent flap. Silently he grabbed his long-bladed knife out of its sheath and went to stand next to the opening.**

 **The tent flap opened and a beam of light caught Charley off guard. A German soldier had stuck his head in and his expression indicated a half-dressed woman wasn't what he expected to find. Charley glanced at the Tully shaped shadow, dropped her blouse, and gave the soldier a cheeky little smile. "Finden sie alles, was Sie mögen, Soldat?"**

 **The German took two steps inside and let the flap fall back. Out of the darkness Tully reached around the covered the soldier's mouth as he pushed the knife into his back and eased him down to the ground.**

 **Tully and Charley quickly finished dressing. Tully checked outside, but there was no way they could get out that way. He picked up the German's machine gun, walked around Charley, who had gotten her pistol out of her satchel, and used his knife to make a slit in the tent wall. After making sure the coast was clear, Tully cut an opening just big enough for them to crawl through.**

 **Staying low, Tully led Charley to relative safety behind several boulders. They watched as the German's started herding half-dressed GIs out of their tents and saw that Troy and Moffitt were among them.**

 **Charley whispered, "What are we going to do?"**

 **Tully said, "We can't be the only ones to escape capture. Stay here. I'm gonna have a look around."**

 **############################**

 **A few minutes after Tully left, two Germans found their dead comrade in the tent. Charley saw them look out the hole in the back. There was a commotion as they reported that at least one American had gotten away and she heard the order to search the encampment and surrounding area.**

 **Charley watched as German soldiers began to fan out. She doubted that she would be safe for very much longer and looked around for somewhere else to hide. A pebble hit the ground near her knee and she slowly turned to see someone wave at her from under a bush. She squinted into the darkness and recognized the face.**

 **Charley stayed low as she crawled into the bushes a couple of yards behind her. She whispered, "Carl! I'm so glad to see you!"**

" **Did they get Tully?"**

" **We got out of the tent together, then he left to take a look around."**

 **At that moment Tully returned and looked around frantically for Charley. Before she could signal him, Tully was caught by a beam from a flashlight. He set the machine gun aside and stood up slowly.**

 **The bushes rustled, but before the German could realize he was in trouble, Carl stepped out and quickly twisted the soldier's head until they heard his neck snap. As the soldier dropped, Tully saw Carl standing there. He grabbed his machine gun and the flashlight as Carl picked up the dead German's gun.**

 **As he clicked the flashlight off, Tully whispered, "Have you seen Charley?"**

 **Carl nodded and led him around the bushes to where Charley was waiting. "They found that dead guy in our tent. They know they didn't get all of us."**

 **Tully nodded and signaled them to fellow. They skirted the camp and avoided the German's, but could do nothing to help the GIs that had been hiding and were now being rounded up. Tully, Charley, and Carl made their way to the far end of the camp where the medical and nurses tents were. There were guards outside the nurses' tent, where the lights shown inside, and the tent that housed a few wounded Americans. However, there was no one outside the surgical tent.**

 **Charley and Carl followed Tully around and into the darkened tent. Tully straightened up once they were inside and whispered, "They've already searched through here. We should be safe for a while at least."**

 **Charley asked, "What happens now?"**

 **Tully put the flashlight in her hand as he replied, "You two are going to wait here. I'm going to see if I can rustle up some help."**

 **############################**

 **Tully made his way around the camp, finding a few stray GIs along the way, and sending them to the surgical tent to wait with Charley and Carl.**

 **Tully went to the motor pool. He saw only one sentry and dispatched him with the butt of the machine gun. He quickly and silently made his way to his jeep. After turning on the radio, he grabbed the headphones and mic and ducked down. Using Morse code Tully was able to call for help.**

 **As he reached up to turn the radio off, Tully heard something. He carefully peeked over the side of the jeep and saw one of the machine guns being slowly lifted out of its holster on Hitch's jeep by an unseen person. Tully quickly circled around to see who it was. He hissed, "Hitch!"**

 **Nearly jumping out of his skin, Hitch turned and smiled at Tully. "Where's Charley?"**

" **Hiding in the surgical tent with Carl Jensen and a few others."**

" **What about Troy and Moffitt?"**

" **Taken prisoner. I just got through on the radio. Help's on the way."**

 **They took the other three machine guns from the jeeps and put some loaded magazines in their pockets before heading back to the surgical tent.**

 **############################**

 **When they returned to the tent, Charley was relieved to see Tully and Hitch.**

 **As he handed out guns and magazines, Hitch whispered, "How many of us are there?"**

 **Carl said, "There's seven of us altogether."**

 **Hitch turned to Tully. "You said help's on the way. Do you think we should wait?"**

" **Help probably won't be here until after sun up. Far as I could make out there's maybe two squads of German's out there keeping our guys in check. Why don't we even the odds a bit before it gets light?"**

 **Tully turned to Charley, but before he could say it, she said quietly, "I am** _ **not**_ **staying here!"**

 **Tully smiled. "All right. Stay close." He looked at Hitch. "You're with us. The rest of you split up. Go slow. Go steady. Stay out of sight. We'll take 'em out one at a time."**

 **One at a time the four men went out in different directions. Then Tully and Hitch, with Charley between them went around the medical tent and silently took out the guards there. Then they went to the nurses' tent.**

 **The two guards saw Charley walking towards them and one called, "Halt! Wo bist du her?"**

 **Charley stopped a few feet from the guards and unbuttoned several buttons on her blouse as she looked at one then the other. She smiled and moved to the guard on her left … and began to flirt. "Warum gehen wir nicht in die OP-Zelt? Es ist leer und dunkel." Charley took his hand and tugged gently. "Komm. Wovor haben sie Angst?"**

 **The guard grinned as he nuzzled her neck and kissed her cheek. He looked at his comrade, who sighed and shook his head as he said, "Gehen und nicht zu lange dauern."**

 **Charley led the unsuspecting guard around the corner of the medical tent, and right into the butt of Hitch's machine gun. While watching his fellow German walk away with the young woman, Tully went up behind him and cracked his skull. He dragged the body to where Hitch and Charley were waiting. He looked at Charley as she buttoned the last button on her blouse and tried not to smile. "You and I are going to have a serious talk about your distraction techniques."**

 **Charley looked up at him. "No good, huh?"**

" **Oh, I wouldn't say that."**

 **Before they headed out, Hitch went in and told the nurses to stay put and on the floor. He turned the lights out as he went out the door.**

 **############################**

 **Tully and Hitch moved silently through the camp bashing unsuspecting Germans as they went, with Charley following closely. They were headed for where the prisoners were being held.**

 **They were just within sight of the prisoners, who were tied up and sitting on the ground within a circle of high powered light, when the first shot rang out from somewhere. One of the guards was hit. The other guards ducked down and prisoners rolled down onto their bellies. There were several more shots, each knocking out one of the lights.**

 **Charley tucked her pistol into her belt and pulled Tully's knife out of its sheath. Tully looked at her and she said, "I'm gonna start cutting them loose."**

 **More shots were fired and they ducked into cover. When Tully turned, Charley was gone. "Damn it!"**

 **Hitch caught Tully's arm. "I'm going to circle around to our left."**

 **Tully nodded and headed out to circle to the right. He hoped and prayed that Charley would be all right.**

 **############################**

 **With darkness as her only cover, Charley crawled into the group of prisoners and began to slice the ropes. Each man moved quietly towards cover.**

 **Another shot and another guard went down. The others were scanning the area, trying to see where the shots were coming from. Charley had freed maybe ten soldiers when the guards noticed their prisoners were escaping. Flashlights came on and shouts were heard yelling at the prisoners to halt.**

 **Tully watched as a beam of light found Charley. He saw her roll onto her back and stare up at the guard. Then in an unexpected move, Charley plunged the long-bladed knife through the guard's foot and into the ground. As the guard screamed and fell back he squeezed the trigger of his machine gun, sending bullets flying. Tully saw Charley run for cover.**

 **Among the prisoners that were able to get away were Troy and Moffitt. They were able to take cover between the tents, where Hitch saw them and got their attention.**

 **When they met up, Troy said, "Bring me up to speed."**

 **Hitch nodded. "There's seven of us with guns. We've been picking off their troops one by one. They're down to about half of their original numbers I would guess. Tully managed to radio for help, but they probably won't be here for a couple hours yet."**

" **Where's Tully?"**

" **Other side somewhere. The rest are scattered around."**

 **Troy looked at Moffitt. "We're going to lose the cover of darkness soon. See if you can get around and find Tully. We've got to take control of this."**

 **############################**

 **Sporadic gun fire hit men on both sides as the dark gave way to the early morning light before the sun came up. The German guards had taken cover, leaving the prisoners exposed.**

 **A voice was suddenly heard through a bullhorn. "You are outnumbered and out gunned! You are only prolonging the inevitable! Give yourselves up and you will be allowed to live! For every five minutes you delay one of the prisoners will die!"**

 **Moffitt found Tully and had managed to arm himself along the way. "You okay, sarge?"**

 **Moffitt nodded. "Where's Charley?"**

 **Tully scowled. "Hopefully hiding."**

" **She took a big risk cutting us loose."**

 **Tully pursed his lips and didn't voice his thoughts on the matter. "I'm going to try to get into a position to pick off the guy on the bullhorn."**

 **Moffitt followed Tully until they were in a spot where they could stay hidden, but see their target. Moffitt noted the rank of the speaker. "He's a first lieutenant. He's more than likely the commander. If you can kill him, the rest may be more willing to give up."**

 **Tully adjusted the sight on his machine gun and took aim as the first lieutenant announced, "Five minutes are up!"**

 **Tully took the shot and hit his target in the head. Unfortunately, a German soldier stood up and killed one of the prisoners. Tully also killed him and said, "This is ridiculous! Are we going to go back and forth until we're all dead?"**

 **As the German's moved to a better covered position, Moffitt looked around and smiled. "I believe the cavalry has arrived, Tully."**

 **They watched as a squad of American troops moved in. Gunfire erupted, but it didn't last long. The German's were now outnumbered and gave up. The rest of the prisoners were set free and German prisoners took their places.**

 **As everyone started to come out of hiding, Tully looked desperately to catch sight of Charley.**

 **Moffitt asked, "Where did you last see her?"**

 **Tully started moving as he said, "I saw her run through there." Moffitt followed as Tully jogged between two tents and around several barrels. He found Charley curled up on the ground, unconscious, blood staining her white blouse.**

 **Moffitt quickly knelt down and checked for a pulse as Tully torn Charley's blouse open. "Her pulse is weak, but it's there."**

 **Troy and Hitch joined them as Tully said, "The bullet went through her side. She's losing a lot of blood."**

 **############################**

 **Later that same day, Charley woke up in the medical tent with Tully sitting next to her holding her hand as he dozed. She squeezed his hand lightly and he opened his eyes. She asked groggily, "What happened?"**

 **Tully sat up. "A bullet went through your side. You lost quite a bit of blood, but you're going to be all right."**

 **Charley looked up at the bottle of plasma that was flowing into her left arm and slowly said, "Don't remember that part. Did we win the battle?"**

 **Tully kissed the palm of her hand. "Sure did. Reinforcements got here in the nick of time."**

 **Charley coughed and gasped at the pain. Tully quickly found a nurse, who gave her some morphine. He sat down and took her hand again. "That should help."**

 **Charley felt the pull of sleep. "Stay with me awhile longer?"**

" **Nothing in this world could get me to move."**


End file.
